A brush fire that broke out at 7:55 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27 in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, burned 230 acres. This is the city I live, so I went out with Nikon D700 the Nikkor 70-200 VR f/2.8 lens, to capture images of the fire. My main problem was that I did not take the tripod. I had no idea how big the fire was and if I had to evacuate the area in a minute's notice. In retrospect, I should have taken it and placed in the trunk of my car, just in case I could have used it - next time there is a news event. It was very hard to shoot at very low speeds even with a VR lens. The whole story of the fires is here: http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_13226703 .